Postcard Collages / Anthony Burgess and concrete music

 

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Reading Anthony Burgess' The Wanting Seed (1962) I was amused to find two references to concrete music (or musique concrète, if you want to sound posh) within the first 39 pages. 'Boys dashed to lessons in concrete music, astrophysics, language control.' (p23). Bear in mind that Burgess is depicting what is, in his eyes, a grim, godless future in which child-bearing is frowned upon and, naturally, all live under strict State control. Concrete music is, therefore, symbolic of society's decline rather than a positive subject for study. 

Burgess wanted to become a composer before becoming a novelist but the music department at the Victoria University of Manchester turned down his application because of poor grades in physics. He went on to compose nonetheless and once said 'I wish people would think of me as a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side.'

From his references to concrete music in The Wanting Seed, it's obvious he was not enamoured with the pioneering works of Pierre Schaeffer, for instance. He probably thought it sacrilegious to 'sample' his beloved classical music, to dissect and reassemble works of genius. Never mind all those 'concrete' sounds such as spinning lids, creaking doors, trains etc - it's just not music! Many others in music no doubt felt the same when first hearing a 'symphony of noises' in the late-40s and early-50s. 

On p39, Tristram is in a bar where 'Remote, cold, abstract, the concrete music went on'. A little later, someone drops a coin in the 'musicator'. The result is music we might recognise today in the form of  'a combo of abstract tape noises with a slow gut-shaking beat deep beneath'. This Burgess describes as a 'dance-tune'. How prescient. Having died in 1993, poor Anthony may well have lived to accidently hear the sonic horror he described become a reality. 

So reading The Wanting Seed today and with those references in mind, what better soundtrack to making some art than L'Œuvre Musicale. It's all available to hear in two pages on Bandcamp.